BPO

training

SS & Tech. Integration

By: A. Taha.

Customer Service
Soft Skills
Voice & Accent
Chat & Email
support
Networking
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Scenario
John Doe is an IT Prodigy and works as a free-lance IT consultant.
Lately, he signed up a new client and is required to provide complete
networking solution.
He is up for the task and has requested certain tips on;
Customer service,
Voice & accent,
Soft-skills,
Chat & Email ethics, and,
Proof-read his literature on his network deployment plan for
client.

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his

Customer Service
Customer service is a process, a manner in which we provide service to
our customers. It begins the very moment, the interaction starts.
Why is Customer Service Important?
Positive customer service leads to Customer Satisfaction. Which in-turn
encourages customer loyalty i.e, retains the customer and provides the
opportunity for Repeat Business.
Whereas, poor customer service leads to Business Loss. :(
An independent survey shows that 68% of Business loss-customers turning
towards other brands or competitors-is caused by Post Sales Service
Dissatisfaction
96% who are dissatisfied will tell between 8 and 20 people
Only 4% of those will let YOU know they are unhappy
14
%

Companies Spend huge amounts on marketing and advertising

to gain customers. Poor customer service can devastate all this

18
%

68
%

efforts and investments.

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In general, positive customer service takes place when we address

both the human needs and business needs of our customers.

Business Needs

Human Needs

To be taken seriously,
Competent, efficient
service
To be informed of the
options
Knowledgeable help
To be kept informed
Follow-through
Honesty
Professional service

Anticipation of needs,
Explanations in my
terms
Basic courtesies
Not to be passed
around
To be listened to and
heard
Dedicated attention
Friendliness
Empathy
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Soft-Skills
Soft skills are the key skills that are required by any individual to sustain and grow
professionally in any job environment that requires interaction among fellow
colleagues or with the clientele.
For support professionals, Soft skills refer to anything that falls outside of the
traditional product and development skill set. Soft skills is the ability to communicate
effectively, promote teamwork within the organization, present ideas, manage people,
solve issues and provide excellent customer service.
In general, soft skills can be defined as the skills, abilities and traits that pertain
to personality, attitude and behavior.
Since Hard skills have become generic the key differentiator is the Soft skills.
Emotional Quotient comes in picture instead of Intelligence Quotient. Its not just about
providing service, its about giving a personal touch to retain customer loyalty and earn
appreciation & respect for both the organization and as an individual.

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Building Rapport and Exhibiting Empathy

Rapport: Creates a connection with the customer.
Break the ice, be friendly yet in a professional manner.

Smile - Even if you are not interacting with the customer face-to-face, smiling
does send positive vibes when you smile and assist.
Use the customers name
If I understand you correctly, John
Go an extra mile arrange a call back if needed, make sure you are dedicated to resolve
his issue on priority. Confirm the issue is fixed.
Suggest him on Out of Scope issues.
Tip: Comment on something the customer says or about where they live. This
makes things seem more personal.

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Empathy
Empathy: The ability to put yourself in another persons position and address it.
It will be a temptation for one to quickly move on and provide resolution, but empathizing
does wonders in Customer Service Industry.
Three Techniques to Empathize:
1. Questions

(can you tell me more about that?)

2. Clarification

(Let me see if I got this right.)

3. Response (I imagine that must be frustrating.)

I understand how you feel, waiting for long time to reach us can be annoying. I sincerely
apologize for any frustration this may have caused, its holiday season and a lot of
customers are trying to reach us hence the long queue.
Empathy is different from Sympathy.
Its like getting into your customers shoe, understand how he feels come
back to yourself address his concern and provide efficient service.

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Customer Engagement Flow

Customer service requires that an interaction follows an algorithm
while interacting with customers. It validates professionalism and
does not deviate from core service.
In an ideal interaction, there are five stages of the Customer
Engagement Flow:
Greet the Customer, offer help,
Probe (Understand the Issue & confirm),
Empathize,
Respond (Effective First Time Resolution),
Close (Conclude the Interaction).
Note: Typically speaking, not all the interactions a CSR may face, are ideal.

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Best Practices
Establish rapport early in the call and build throughout.
Show Empathy
Do not criticize customers, partners or competitors
Do not share information between customers
Choose your words/ tone carefully

Be cautious with humor

Words can be taken the wrong way or out of context
Words can come back to haunt you

Never offer legal advice

Be prepared to transfer / escalate

Document accurately
Be thorough and factual
Be aware of the records retention policy at your location

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Customer Expectation & Moment of Truth

Every time a customer establishes a contact, he has a set of preconceived ideas, assumptions about how, he is going to be served. They
could arise from his past experience or it could be a set of expectations.
Treat the customer, as you would like to be treated as
These expectations could be;
Prompt service,
Efficient resolution in first contact,
Professionalism,
Respect,
Individual Attention, etc

While the interaction proceeds, customer is actually rating us in the back

of his mind on whether we are meeting his expectations or not. Before
the interaction is over, he forms an opinion on whether we have met his
expectations, or failed to meet them or exceeded them. Now that
moment is Moment of Truth. If we have exceeded his expectations, what
we give him is a positive Moment of Truth and a WoW experience.

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Voice & Accent

Sounds:
Any spoken language requires to pronounce correct sound of the
spoken words. In case of English, as a foreign language there is
always a heavy influence on intonation of their respective mother
tongue langue.
To overcome this situation one needs to practice the basic sounds of
Consonants and Vowels. Below are the charts;

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Syllables & Intonation

Syllable is the smallest possible distinctive sound produced to
pronounce a word.
Eg: Hi (One Syllable), Hello(Hel lo Two Syllable)
Syllable stress causes different accents.
It is important to be able to identify and break down a word into
syllable

Intonation is stress on syllable to produce an accent.

There are various methods of using intonation to produce an accent
similar to the language spoken at a particular geographic region.
The industry standard requires to neutralize the accent by controlling
the intonation part of speech.
Step-up and Step-down method-Stress on the first word step up on
pitch, and gradually step down to end the sentence and stress again
on last word. Example**
Note: Stress can also be on important words you want to emphasize

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Chat & Email

Unlike voice support, chat & email medium requires more attention.
Because its not just what you are conveying to the customer comes
into picture but there is more to it.
Writing skills (Upper case, lower case, punctuations etc),
Response time (All efforts go in vain if this factor goes for a toss),
Read between the lines to understand customers human needs.
Etc
Abbreviations, chat lingos,
Email formats, chat ethics,
Multi-Tasking etc.
Tip: Become keyboard friendly and you are game.

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Dos & Dont

Typing in UPPER CASE is considered to be abusive or a more adamant or urgent
expression of the phrase. Upper case should never be used with a customer.
DO NOT flood the window. Before continuing make sure the customer can relate to
you and understands what you are referring to.
If you are posting a lengthy explanation, type part of it and use ... and continue the
message in your next post.
To cut down the time spent on typing, many customers have started using
abbreviations for various actions and phrases. Hence, though it is an absolute no-no to
use these abbreviations with the customers, it is important to be familiar with them.
Avoid needless details or company jargon that will confuse or bog down the message.
Respond quickly to customer requests and do follow-ups. If a customer is very clear
about what he needs or wants, your priority should be to make it happen. And if, for
some reason your course of action can't happen, follow-up with another option or
solution. Never let the customer's expectations down. Do what you say and you can,
when you commit, deliver.
Never argue with customers. Encourage customers to voice their concerns, but dont
make judgments or participate in a argumentative confrontation.
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Tone & Fillers

For voice support, Tone is how the customer perceives our attitude
towards them. A pleasant tone carry's a message that we care.
A monotonous tone can be inferred as a canned response.
For Chat & Email, punctuations become your tone.
E.g: Im going to work today ? ! .
Note:Use Punctuations wisely, they can change the context totally. May sound Sarcastic.

Fillers are required to keep the communication go two ways. Like ok,
I see, I understand, I got it etc. It is used widely for Acknowledging,
Appreciating, Affirming, Assuring, Paraphrasing, Positive Agreement
etc.
Note: Do not repeat the same filler again and again, coz again it sounds like a canned
response.

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Networking
John is supposed to install and design a network with certain
restrictions.
The company has 5 different group of users such as HR, Marketing,
CSR, Finance, Administration group.
He not only has to design the network and implement it but also has
to restrict one group from accessing other group of computers yet
remain in the same network.
Routers, IP & Subnet.
Class A, B, C of IPs.
How subnet can be used to calculate & restrict computers of different
streams from accessing others.

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